Our First Family Trip to Jeju Island: Five Summer Days to Remember
For years, Jeju Island was one of the places in Korea I really wanted to visit. During my graduate school years, however, I never had the opportunity to go. Jeju remained one of those places I kept thinking I would visit someday.
That opportunity finally came after I started working in Seoul. I traveled to Jeju for work, and this time our families came along as well. It gave us a chance to combine the trip with some family time and finally experience the island I had wanted to visit for so long.
We stayed for five days. It was my first time in Jeju, and it was also the children's first visit. After wanting to see the island for so long, finally arriving there felt special. I remember thinking, I finally made it to Jeju.
Jeju Felt Different
One of the things I noticed almost immediately was how different Jeju felt from the Korea I had become familiar with.
The color of the sea caught my attention. In some places it looked brighter and more vivid than I expected. The tall palm trees along the roads added to that feeling. Together with Jeju's stone walls, greenery, volcanic landscape, and coastline, they gave the island a character of its own.
There were moments when it did not quite feel like the Korea I saw every day in Seoul.
We rented a car for the trip, which made it much easier to move between different parts of the island with the children. It was especially convenient in the July heat, when being able to travel at our own pace made a big difference.
Summer Flowers at Camellia Hill
One of my favorite stops was Camellia Hill.
Our July visit was very different from the winter camellia scenery that the name might bring to mind. The gardens were green and filled with summer flowers, including beautiful hydrangeas.
I probably enjoyed this stop more than my boys did. I love flowers, so walking along the garden paths and seeing so many flowers in bloom was exactly the kind of place I enjoyed. I kept stopping to look around and take photos, while the boys were naturally more interested in other parts of our Jeju trip.
For them, swimming, the pleasure boat, and our visit to Soesokkak seemed to be much more exciting. It was a small reminder that even when a family travels together, everyone can come home with different favorite memories.
Soesokkak Estuary
We also visited Soesokkak Estuary (쇠소깍). This was one of the places the boys seemed to enjoy more, and it gave us another chance to experience Jeju's natural scenery away from the city.
By this point in the trip, I was beginning to understand why Jeju had stayed on my travel wish list for so many years. The island was not only about individual attractions. Driving between places, seeing the water, greenery, stone, and coastline along the way was part of the experience itself.
Seeing the Seogwipo Coast from the Water
Another memorable experience was taking the Seogwipo Pleasure Boat (서귀포유람선).
Seeing Jeju from the water gave us a completely different perspective on the island. From the boat, we could look back toward the coastline and see the dramatic rocky cliffs rising above the sea.
The boat ride was one of the experiences the children especially enjoyed. For me, it was another opportunity to see the volcanic landscape that makes Jeju so distinctive.
The July Heat at Yongmeori Coast
Our visit to Yongmeori Coast (용머리해안) gave us one of those travel memories that did not go quite according to plan.
We went on a hot July afternoon and started walking along the coast, surrounded by impressive layers of rock. The scenery made us want to keep going, but eventually the summer heat won.
We made it this far, looked around, took our photos, and decided it was time to turn back.
Sometimes travel is like that. You do not have to finish every trail or see every corner of a place for it to become part of the memory. When I look at the photographs now, I remember not only the unusual coastline but also just how hot that afternoon was.
Summer at Hyeopjae Beach
Of course, a summer trip to Jeju with children would not have felt complete without some time at the beach. We visited Hyeopjae Beach (협재해수욕장), where the children could enjoy the sand and water.
It was July, so we were certainly not the only family with that idea. The beach was busy with people enjoying the summer, but that was part of experiencing Jeju during the holiday season.
For us, it was not about finding a perfectly quiet beach. Watching the children play in the sand while looking out at Jeju's beautiful water became one of those simple family moments that I still associate with our first trip.
And They Still Wanted to Swim at Night
After spending the day sightseeing in the July heat, you might expect the children to be tired. Apparently, they were not tired enough to stop swimming.
Our hotel had an outdoor pool, and the children enjoyed swimming there in the evening. With the sea beyond the pool and the sky growing darker, it felt completely different from our daytime sightseeing.
Looking back, this is one of the things I like about traveling with children. Their favorite memories do not necessarily follow the list of famous attractions. Sometimes a hotel swimming pool can be just as exciting as anything you carefully planned for the day.
Quiet Moments by the Sea
Between the sightseeing and activities, there were also quieter moments when we could simply enjoy being near the sea. Jeju's coastline looked different as the light changed through the day, and some of the simplest views became some of my favorite photographs from the trip.
One Last Stop Before Leaving Jeju
Before heading to the airport for our flight back to Seoul, we made one last stop at Iho Tewoo Beach. Its red and white horse-shaped lighthouses, inspired by Jeju's ponies, are easy to recognize from a distance. We walked out toward the red lighthouse, took a few final photos, and enjoyed a little more of the sea before saying goodbye to Jeju.
Five Days That Made Me Want to Return
Our first Jeju trip lasted five days, but it was enough for the island to leave a strong impression on me.
Perhaps part of that feeling came from having wanted to visit for so long. During my graduate school years in Korea, Jeju had always been somewhere I hoped to see one day. By the time I finally arrived, I was working in Seoul and experiencing the island together with my family and coworkers.
It felt like reaching a small personal milestone.
But what stayed with me was not only the fact that I had finally visited. I remembered the vivid color of the sea, the tall palm trees along the roads, summer flowers, volcanic coastline, the heat at Yongmeori, the children playing at the beach and swimming at night, and the time we spent together away from our normal routine.
And, as it turned out, those five days were not the end of my Jeju story.
I later returned to the island twice during university winter vacations, this time traveling with my coworkers. Seeing Jeju again in another season and under different circumstances gave me a different experience of the same island.
But this first summer trip will always be special to me. It was the trip when a place I had wanted to visit for years finally became a real memory — and one I was able to share with my family.
